ELI5 Explain Like I'm 5: Bite sized answers to stuff you should know about - in a mini podcast

Some people say Coca Cola tastes different from an alumninum can compared to when drinking out of a glass bottle? Why is the level of fizziness also different between aluminum, plastic and glass bottles? What is so hard to replicate about the original Coca Cola? How can soft drinks like Coca-Cola Zero have almost 0 calories in them?

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Which is more popular, driving on the left side of the road or the right? How has this changed in the last 100 years? How did Sweden manage to make the switch from left hand traffic to right hand traffic in one day? What are the practical considerations? Is this the same for rail and boat transport?

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Why are clothes that are hung to dry crunchy/stiffer than clothes dried in a dryer? How does spandex make cotton stretchy? What does it mean when they say cotton 50% and something else 50% like polyester or lycra? Please explain bed sheets and thread counts?

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How is monkeypox related to smallpox? Why was it possible to eradicate smallpox, when it’s been impossible to do for other diseases? Why do vaccines owe their name to smallpox? What is cowpox? How does chickenpox fit into all this?

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What are stable coins and why do we even need them? What’s the mechanism that makes them stable? What are the different types of stable coin? How did the algorithmic stable coin Terra work, and why did it unravel?

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Some extra resources:

https://medium.com/@lawrenceg/what-are-stablecoins-and-why-do-we-need-them-db83c85b86b

https://multicoin.capital/2018/01/17/an-overview-of-stablecoins/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stablecoin

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What’s the difference between the police department and the sheriff’s department? What was the sting operation the FBI conducted on members of congress in the 1980s? Did we not have a foreign intelligence service before the CIA was created? What was the Secret Service’s original role?

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In business, what is a hostile takeover? How does it work? How can a board of directors prevent a hostile takeover? What is a poison pill? Can a board choose not to use a poison pill once it has been set up? What do Microsoft, Netflix and Papa Johns have in common?

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Where does the term come from? Why is the definition so hard to pin down? What happened in the 1940s film starring Ingrid Bergman? When did gaslighting re-enter popular culture in recent times? Why is the term often misused?

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Why is Hiroshima a vibrant city today, vs a dead city like Chernobyl which still has sa 30km exclusion zone? How do countries get rid of nuclear warheads when they no longer need them? How are nuclear weapons tests conducted underground without destroying everything around them? ELI5 what happened at Chernobyl?

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What is Lego’s company motto? What does the word Lego mean? How do lego bricks not lose tension after years of repetitive play? If Lego had a patent on their interlocking bricks, why are there so many copycat versions? How many lego pieces are in circulation? What’s the biggest lego set?

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Why do they switch out the basketball net frequently in the NBA? What was Tim Duncan doing before he got into basketball? How and why did backboards become part of basketball? What’s behind the color convention of home and away jerseys? What is the most accurate free throw tecnique? Why is the Lithuanian team of 1992 called ‘the other dream’?

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Why don’t hurricanes seem to hit the West Coast of the USA or Europe? What is the Coreolis effect and why does it determine which direction a hurricane spins? They say the water flushes down a toilet or down a drain in opposite directions in the northern and southern hemispheres - fact or fiction? Why did hurricanes all have female names at one stage?

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How did business suit and tie become the standard men’s attire for business? How did it become a global fashion standard? Who was Beau Brummel? Why was he central to the story of the business suit? Practically, what is the slash pocket for? Why do some shirts have cufflinks?

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What is a half twin? If twins have identical DNA, how come their fingerprints are different? If identical twins have kids with another set of identical twins, are their offspring technically brothers or sisters? If two twin brothers are disputing to see who is the father of a child, can science determine which of the two is the real father? Why are there so many twins in hollywood? Does face scanning recognize twins as the same?

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How did civilizations originally justify charging interest on money? How does raising interest rates slow/lower inflation? Do banks lose money if they lend money at less than inflation? What does the term usury mean? Why is interest banned in Islamic finance? How come people don't borrow from low-interest rate countries like Japan and deposit it in high-interest rate countries like Argentina?

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How long has doping been a problem? What does doping have to do with the word beserk? Who was the first person to get disqualified for doping and what did he take (the answer may surprise you)? Why is it so hard to detect? How did Lance Armstrong get away with it for so long? Why isn’t caffeine on the banned list?

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Why is the word sanction an autoantonym? What does imposing sanctions on another country actually do? How has Cuba been able to live with sanctions for so long? Why do we not have red pistachios in the US?

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How long does it take for water you drink to get to your bladder? If you drink more than your bladder can hold, what does your body do with the surplus liquid? How much liquid does the average bladder hold? If you need to pee, and you drink more water, why does the urge get stronger right away? What is shy bladder? What am I feeling in my bladder area when I go down a rollercoaster?

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What does honey have in common with botox? How exactly do bees make honey? If ants love sugar and honey, why don’t we see bee hives constantly attacked by ants? What did native americans call bees when they first encountered them? How did bees help in a drug investigation in NYC?

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What is anxiety, and how does it become a disorder? What is happening physiologically when people describe getting an anxiety lump? How is anxiety different from depression? How is clinical depression diagnosed? Why do mental health symptoms seem more intrusive, disruptive and severe at night time? Why does exercise appear to help with mental health?

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It takes a dozen oranges to make a single glass of OJ, so how is it economically viable? Why does Tropicana taste different to Simply Orange if they are both 100% orange juice? Some people say orange juice is as unhealthy as soda - is this really true? Why does orange juice taste so horrible if you drink it right after brushing your teeth?

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Why is there a difference in voltage between America and pretty much the rest of the world? Is there an advantage to one vs the other? How did we end up with so many different types of electrical sockets? What’s different about the ‘shavers only’ sockets you see in bathrooms?

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Is there a legitimate reason why we must power down all our electronic devices on planes? Has EMI ever caused an actual plane crash? What are some of the potential solutions? What is the new issue with 5G and planes?

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How did salt become the chosen condiment all over the world? Why does it work as a preservative? Why is there so much salt in the ocean? Is sea salt really different to regular salt? Why does putting salt on a wound make it sting so much? Why are smelling salts used to wake up the unconscious? What happens when you drink sea water?

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What can your Internet Service Provider see when you use an encrypted connection? How about when you don’t? What does RSA stand for? Why is prime factorization the mathematical basis for cryptography and encryption?

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Why is it called Black Friday? Why is thanksgiving always on a Thursday? Did Macys invent the thanksgiving parade? Why is American Football a thanksgiving tradition? Why is the weekend after thanksgiving the busiest day in the year for plumbers?

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What is the danger zone when talking about food safety? Can we leave meat in hot water or at room temperature to defrost it? If bacteria die from heat or say, boiled water, where do their corpses go? What is depyrogenation?

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How do cargo ship containers not topple over in rough seas? What’s the secret as to how they all stick together? How did they all become standard sizes? Who was the ‘father of containerization’ and how did he get things to change so rapidly?

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Why does soap not work with hard water? Is hard water a good or bad thing? What are water softeners? Why are they banned in some places? When you buy bottled water in plastic bottles, how come they have an expiration date? How can water expire?

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Why do we use genetically modified organisms? What are the drawbacks? Are there any health issues with GMO foods? How did Norman Borlaug save 1 billion people?

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Is there a difference between ADD and ADHD? Does ADHD affect adults? How is it not just being hyper active? What goes on in the brain of someone with ADHD? Why do some people not believe in ADHD? What makes video games and people with ADHD a perfect fit?

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How does UV light sanitize? If UV is dangerous for our skin, why bother with low SPF sunscreens? How does sunscreen work? What does the SPF number measure? What sunscreen products were recalled recently?

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Why is tupperware wet coming out of the dishwasher, when plates and glasses are all dry? Why do tomatoes stain in a dishwasher? What makes something dishwasher safe, or only top rack dishwasher safe? How are industrial dishwasher so much quicker than the ones at home? Which uses more water, using a dishwasher or hand washing?

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Why do we have a debt ceiling? What used to happen before it was invented? Do other countries have one? What happened in 2011 and why did it involve Apple? What was the trillion dollar coin and why are people talking about it again?

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Why were dinosaurs and things that lived long ago so much bigger than animals today? What caused the extreme weather back then? Were oxygen levels really much higher than they are today. Were CO2 levels higher too? How are both possible?

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Is it theoretically possible that my key could unlock a second car somewhere else in the world? Why is the keyless entry system separate to the keyless ignition system? What is an immobilizer? What is a rolling code, and why is it important that my car has one?

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What are reverse mortgages in the simplest terms? What do they have to do with the singer David Bowie? What does the French origins of the word mortgage mean?

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Why do we hiccup? What evolutionary function does it perform? Which of the remedies actually work to stop hiccups? Who were the people who had extended hiccups? Who won the Ig Noble Prize for hiccups?

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Why is the moon slowly moving away from the earth at 4cm per year? How do we even measure it so precisely? Why does the same side of the moon always face the earth? What is the beautiful dimensional coincidence that gives us a a perfect solar eclipse?

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Thank you to the r/explainlikeimfive community and in particular the following users whose questions and comments formed the basis of this discussion: deletedscenebrowser, mobius1424, joldz, smlz101, puppypile99 and boymcmoyo

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Why was there a sudden change in Teflon plans in 2015? Are newer versions of Teflon safe? What is the chemical used to make Teflon that is in the bloodstream of 99.7% of Americans?

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Thank you to the r/explainlikeimfive community and in particular the following users whose questions and comments formed the basis of this discussion: dj_orka99, thebiga1806, doctormodalus, chem_equals, cicya, twatical, d2nekon and tracygee

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What happens if we sleep without them? Does it cause long term spinal problems if you sleep without one regularly? Why do babies seem to do fine without a pillow?

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Thank you to the r/explainlikeimfive community and in particular the following users whose questions and comments formed the basis of this discussion: starrdust322, agentelman, open_door_policy and philosophile42

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What makes mattresses so expensive? What is the purpose of a box spring underneath? What is the best way and optimal position for humans to sleep? Why do we humans like to use a pillow to support our heads when we sleep?

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Thank you to the r/explainlikeimfive community and in particular the following users whose questions and comments formed the basis of this discussion: musical_jinn, crackyospine, shakeanjake, epicjigsaw, nittygrittytruth and andy_clark

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Why are all the Olympic Games money losers except the famous Los Angeles event in 1984? What did LA do differently? How does funding for the Olympics work? Why doesn't the IOC just buy an island to host the Olympics there every 4 years? Do Olympic athletes have a McDonalds in the village?

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Can memories be passed down to subsequent generations via genetics? What did a team at Emory University discover about genetic memory? What does it mean for medicine, in particular treatments for anxiety and phobia?

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Thank you to the r/explainlikeimfive community and in particular the following users whose questions and comments formed the basis of this discussion: danasf, brave-welder, tdscanuck and nerdchieftain.

Paper referenced in episode:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3923835/

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Why can't we seed clouds to solve California's drought problem? How does seeding clouds even work? Which countries and states have used the technology? Who legally owns a cloud?

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Thank you to the r/explainlikeimfive community and in particular the following users whose questions and comments formed the basis of this discussion: grenata, ratelslangen2, irwin96, drkobbe, kaseyB, steavee and shaggorama

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Why does pasta foam when the lid is on the pot, but the bubbles quickly disappear if I lift the lid? If all pasta is made from the same ingredients, why do we have so many pasta shapes? Did Marco Polo introduce pasta to Europe or was it all a marketing tale?

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Is chess a sport? Why is it so popular? How did it become a global game? Why is the queen the most powerful piece on the board? When playing with a computer on low difficulty, how does it know how to play a not so great move? Do men and women play in separate tournaments?

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How do they build underwater tunnels? How do tunnel boring machines know where they are going? What happens when they meet in the middle? Why do underground tunnels not flood when it rains - doesn't water flow to the middle and collect?

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Thank you to Carl for writing in with this week's question!

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How does the ear canal and the eardrum keep itself clear of earwax? Why is only one third of your ear canal able to clear ear wax? What does your jaw have to do with ear wax removal? Did you know that people have one of two types of ear wax based on their genetics? Why have anthropologists done studies on ear wax? 

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Thank you to the r/explainlikeimfive community and in particular the following users whose questions and comments formed the basis of this discussion: akadap, h2opolopunk, rthereanynamesleft, dkf295 and martinonfire.

This wikipedia article was also helpful in research for this episode:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earwax

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What makes cling film sticky? Why are there competing theories for how it clings? Why is the Saran Wrap product significantly less sticky today than it was before 2004? Why does wrapping a plastic bag around your credit card help it scan?

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Thank you to the r/explainlikeimfive community and in particular the following users whose questions and comments formed the basis of this discussion: 4emonas, jbloom43, genghiskhen, phage0070, meowi_purrr, thirteenera, chippolot, inanecathode, uglydodo, diamondcubeminer, thebladex666, concise_pirate and mattschmie

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